Field Visit
Date 12 June 1915
Event ID 1104344
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1104344
Cille Bhrianain, Vatersay.
Just above the shore on the west side of Uinessan, a tidal islet at the extreme east of Vatersay, is an old burying ground containing the foundations of an old church of stone and lime. Accurate dimensions are not obtainable, but the building has been oblong and orientated east-north-east and west-south-west. It has been about 37 feet long and 16 feet 6 inches broad externally. The place is known as Caibeal Moire nan Ceann (Chapel of Mary of the heads) after a Coll lady, who married a Macneil of Barra and was notorious for having beheaded everyone to whom she took a dislike. She wished to be buried within sight of her loved island of Coll, and it was only when the burial party reached this spot that they saw that the island of Muldoanich intervened, but being tired they interred her here.
RCAHMS 1928, visited 12 June 1915.
OS map: Barra lxvi.
